About me

Erika

My, you're looking lovely today. My name is Erika and I can think of few things I love more than baking and books. Cozy sweaters, bear hugs, Earl Grey tea and rainy days. I love nostalgia and hope your today is full of joy and wonder.

I thought that today I would share some writing advice with you, dearest blog. I know, how self-righteous am I, that I should share something with you? Well, I will anyways, because I'm defiant. Bahaha.

Imagine your ideal reader.

I know that a lot of people say this, or maybe they don't, but either way I've heard it before. You can be sure that I'm being far from original.

I've just been watching Nerimon's channel on youtube in which he has videos where he reads Twilight and critiques it. Basically, he voices the thoughts of every single non-preteen as they read it. Sorry, maybe you like Twilight. Then again, maybe you have no big toe on your left foot. I wouldn't know.

His comments, like his videos, are witty, clever, and in a delicious British accent. Yeah, I'm creepy, sorry.

Anyways, I currently have a story stuck in my head (or, at least, a few characters. No plot. Lovely) and now I can't stop wondering what Nerimon (AKA Alex Day) would think about it. You may not have guessed it (ha-ha), but I'm extremely awkward in public, and therefore intimidated by witty, clever, British people.

DON'T BE INTIMIDATED BY YOUR IMAGINARY AUDIENCE!

If your imaginary reader scares you, looks down on you, or likes to throw sharp things in your direction, then they are a bad friend. I know it can be hard to report someone you love, but you need to accept this. If your potential reader intimidates you, your writing will intimidate you because rather than just expressing yourself, you'll be wondering what they'd think and say.

Or maybe you could just go out and get a backbone, some guts, and care less what people have to say about your work.

Monday, December 28, 2009

I just wanted to take a second to introduce you to something dear to me... My mom's mullet. When she puts her hair in a pony tail and leans back against the couch, she looks like quite the hair band rocker.

Because I'm such a procrastinator, I'm also going to introduce you to Harry, the Suck Monster. He is furry, and angry (but really just misunderstood), and he loves to latch on to my writing and make it SUCK. He's been with me for my whole life, but has never been personified.

Ophie is my second to last fiendish (imaginary, to some extent) friend to tell you about. She is my personification of writer's block. That, and a giant wall... Writer's wall...

Wow, this a great waste of time. So, last but not least we have the great, magnificent, enigmatic... MILK! Thanks to Seventh Sanctum's mascot generator, I now have a mascot. "Milk the doormouse - the flirty, white-colored knight." Excellent.

I've also spent the past hour and a bit watching A Hard Day's Night, the Beatles' amazingly wonderful movie. Now I'm watching 'The Beatles On Record' on television. This is great. Everything else in this post I can pretty much sum up as a colossal waste of time, but not this :)

And so I leave you with a picture to warm your heart, stir your soul, make you wish you were born fifty years ago...

Well, '09 has certainly been the year of the short, random post, often thought up while half asleep. It has also been the year of the long hiatuses followed by spastic times of constant posts, several times a day. Hmm, it's good to know that I've evolved.

Anyways, today is, so far, exciting! I spent the night at my mom's house for the first time ever (considering even though it's titled my mom's house no one really lives there full time as of yet), and visited the house I'm currently house-sitting and hung out with their two cats for a while.

What's so exciting about that, you may ask? Well, nothing, actually. To add insult to injury, my Winter Break is quickly coming to a close and I still have a lot of homework to finish. Lovely. Oh, and did I mention that I'm feeling quite sick right now?

Wow, I really, really suck at this! Okay, without further ado, the exciting news:

I just sent off my entry to the Young Writers Contest courtesy of PenWriters. Now it's floating somewhere in a Penticton in-box, waiting to be judged and hopefully loved. I'm very anxious, but also extremely excited (can you tell?) and happy considering I've actually pulled together and finished something before the deadline! I'm coasting on the same kind of accomplishment-high as I was when I finally completed my CBC Literary Awards entry. Winning would be spectacularly amazing, but really just entering has me very happy :)

On top of all of that, I have oodles of newly downloaded music on my iTunes! It's all happy and lovely and folk-y pop, the new direction I'm gravitating towards... Ah, third generation hippies.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Yes, three posts in one day, I realize that I must be a little desperate. Well, guess what? I am. The reason for this third, slightly manic post, however? I have two followers. TWO FOLLOWERS!!!

I am so happy and very enthused, as I hope comes across clearly with all of the exclamation marks and capital letters... It makes me feel like I'm yelling on the inside.

Anyways, I just wanted to take a moment to deeply, genuinely, wholeheartedly thank my two followers, neither of which I actually know (which makes it that much cooler). Of course, now I feel a little bit weird considering all this time I thought I was only writing for myself, and basically to hear (read?) the sound of my own voice. This is even better! Of course, I'll continue being ridiculously sentimental, pretty damn random, and a whole lot of crazy. Once again, I try.

Egad! I completely and utterly forgot to tell you something! HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Not only was yesterday Christmas Day, but today is the start of Kwanzaa. Wow, just totally overused the word and suffix 'day' there, sorry. Anywho, I had a lovely time, and received several excellent presents including buckets of books, and long-board. Yes, yes, yes, excellent. By the way, mon frere and I have finally decided on a decent cat name--decent in our minds, anyways.

Mister D. B. Mittens.

The irony comes in that we're only using it if we have a female cat, and DB actually stands for Death By. Yeah, we try.

Black out your electric company. There you have it, the title for my Penwriters short story entry! Well, not exactly.

I need to choose between one of the other, "Black Out" or "The Electric Company". Both have bad connotations, and a lot of baggage to go along with them (ex: either Britney Spears' new album--great--or a PBS Kids television show--not bad, per say, but plagiarizing?--). At the same time, both of them could transform my original idea into something new and different. Ideas?

It's genuinely hard for me to choose. I know, after all, that it's a little pathetic that I'm not seriously getting down to work until now, December 26th, five days (but realistically four) before the absolute deadline.

Winning this contest and being accepted to the Penticton 2010 Summer Writing Camp would really be a dream come true. Actually, being a writer would be a dream come true. I know, I know, here I am gushing about my aspirations rather than working on my entry, but this really helps me process what I'm doing. Sometimes I like to do an extensive outline, other times I just like to dive in. I don't have a main mode of working or something that I usually do, I'm just trying to be me.

Ahh! So much gushing! Even if I had punctured an artery I wouldn't be this bad! Sorry, sorry, sorry to the anyone and everyone (yeah, right) reading this. Some days I just need to get it out there into the world.

Monday, December 21, 2009

I just realized that I have this website posted on my Facebook profile as my website. Now, it's probably safe to say that no one really checks out my Facebook profile, yet I'm slightly alarmed. What might the ever growing universe of Facebook think of my humble little blog? What might my blog say if it knew I was calling it both "humble" and "little"? Enough about that. Obviously they're not going to like my picture, so why should they like my blog? Stupid universe.

Well, today, in case you didn't know, is the Winter Solstice, so how could I not post? The longest night of the year has only really started, and already I have a few things plaguing my mind.

A few weeks ago, I was asked to house sit for one of my neighbors. Not really thinking about it, I said yes, figuring it would be a good way to make a little money and get out of the house. Then I completely forgot about it, didn't go to their house to get my instructions (although I have house sat for them in the past). Today I let both of their cats outside, as per the note they left behind, and went to my cello recital. After I got back it had been 2 or 3 hours, so I decided to let them back in. The only problem? I can't find one of the cats. And it's freezing outside. Shit!

I had my very-first-ever-of-my-entire-life cello recital today! I played Away In A Manger as a solo, and then Patapan and Huron Carol on trumpet in a group, along with Silent Night, this time on cello. Confused yet? The worst part, besides my very out of tune B flat, the floor was slippery so my cello stand kept sliding across the floor, while I was trying to play. Ugh.

One more writing site for your perusal, Query Shark, a blog where Janet Reid, a highly opinionated agent who clearly knows her stuff, reads, edits, and reviews query letters sent in by readers. It's brutally honest, very informative, and hopefully leads to some success stories! Suffice it to say (oh my gosh, alliteration) I've become slightly addicted to it.

Happy Winter Solstice! Not only is tonight the longest night and shortest day of the entire year, but it's also the first day of Winter. Pretty hard to believe, considering how cold it's been, at least where I live! That, and a lot of cultures celebrate the New Year on either the Winter Solstice or Spring Equinox. Good idea!

Today is a sad way, in many ways. I love the Winter, don't get me wrong, and I love the Solstice, but it always makes me sad in the after today, the nights are going to start getting shorter... How is your Winter going--as of, say, 12:01 am this morning?

I'm pretty happy, actually. I've got a new story idea, and I've decided that this story I am writing one hundred percent for my own enjoyment. I will not think about it ever being published, winning any awards, or making me famous. No, I will not, and if I do then I will be forced to eat my own hands off. Interesting solution...

I hope your Winter goes well. I'm currently watching The National on CBC with the Top 9 of '09. The best part? I love Peter Mansbridge, and his sad lack of a chair. We should get him one for Christmas.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

I was just wasting my day away, trying to get out of practicing for my cello recital Monday (exciting!) or any actual writing, and found myself on Google, looking up "helpful writing sites". By doing this, I discovered that there are very few resources out there on the web. No, that's obviously a lie, what I mean to say is that there are very few resources in one location on the web. Thus, it has fallen to me to create a veritable coffee shop for all those amazing writers' sites to hang out, mingle, and get to know each other at.

Unfortunately, I don't know of every helpful site, and so if you can think of any others, please let me know! I'm going to try my best to include something for everyone, so let's just see how this goes, shall we?

Google.com - Just as a basic starter, Google is the absolute best possible resource for looking up virtually anything, anyone, or anywhere, and finding whatever you need!

NaNoWriMo.org - A challenge posed to anyone crazy enough to try to write 50,000 words in the month of November. Even outside of November, though, this site provides a helpful and creative atmosphere with innovative forums to answer just about every question you could possibly think of (and if not, ask yourself!), plus a page for your location and writer's profiles so you can check out who else is out there, communicate, and more.

Inkygirl.com - Inky Girl covers just about every topic possible--a twitter guide for writers, challenges, games and more--and tons of hilarious, insightful comics.

WillWriteForChocolate.com - Another site created by Debbie Ohi (along with InkyGirl). This one contains more clever, funny comics with a whole new cast of true-to-life (if a little exaggerated) characters, centered around Eliza, the potential novelist who proves that the best tool in a writer's repertoire truly is chocolate. (Uh, I mean, creativity).

SeventhSanctum.com - The absolute best site for writing prompts, random names, and various generators that will spit out just about anything in any category.

Mail.Google.com - I've found that Gmail seems to work better than hotmail, or yahoo, or most other email sites. It's easy to organize your mail, you can add specific details to your contacts, and even chat using unique emoticons. And words, of course.

That's all for today, mostly because I'm tired and running out of sites to list. I think I'll go away for a little while, crawl back into my cave, and do some research then come back with a whole new list to blow your brains out! After this, I'll probably compile a list of handy-dandy websites, without my mindless chatter and descriptions, so that you can get straight to the good stuff. You know, other people's sites.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

MAE! That is the name of my FMC in my Penticton Writing Contest short story entry. "FMC" stands for Female Main Character, in case you didn't know. All of these acronyms, they can get to you.

She is fascinated by the galaxies, planets, and stars out there that her generation never got the chance to see. Anyways, I have the first few paragraphs written, very rough drafts, of course. I came up with the idea, as I always do, half asleep lying on my bed, far too tired to want to drag myself out of bed and write anything down, but also far too desperate to ignore the impulse.

Oh, and want to know something else? The world is ending.

It makes me think about the world around me, and the fact that the world really is coming to an end. Ever think about that? I did, last night. It made my heart hurt. Ever get that feeling, in the pit of your stomach, when you want something so bad that you feel sick just thinking about how you might not be able to get it.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Writing is frying my brain cells, it is sucking out my soul, it is breaking my heart. Didn't I have a talent for this, at one point? Maybe I was young--perhaps, way back when none of my classmates knew their alphabets... A, B, C... What comes next?

Not only can I not think of any idea, but even characters and settings are proving to be impossible. My life is piling up like flies in a spider web, and unfortunately none of those flies are quite what I'm looking for.

Honestly, writing a short story and being admitted to a writing camp... That's really how I've always wanted my life to go! I could have a great time--or a not so great time. Whatever. The point is, I'll be writing. That's the only thing I can't live without, can imagine myself doing for a living, am proud of. Wait a second, the first two aren't quite right, but the third is. No matter what happens, if I can finish a story I'd be more than happy to share it with you, the world, as well as my teachers and friends (for editing purposes, of course).

Boys are rescued in snow storms, girls get 100+ % on their English tests, anything is possible these days. Maybe at some point I'll actually finish a story for once. Oh, for the love of writing!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Today I read a poem. I know what you're thinking (or maybe not...): A poetry reading--for serious? No, in fact, I was not reading a poem of my own, and I was not nearly as elegant or intellectual as the title evokes.

Today, December 6th, 2009, is the twentieth anniversary of the 'Montreal Massacre'. Fourteen women were killed at Ecole Polytechnique by Mark Lepine, simply because they were women, and labeled as Feminists. I consider myself to be something of a feminist, and I find this whole idea of violence against women appalling. I know, especially after tonight, that it's a major problem in our world today. The part that I find appalling, is that it exists at all.

There were six speakers, including two women representing various First Nations organizations, our local MLA and MP, and a woman who had been attacked herself. Then a candle light vigil took place, in which fourteen people placed a rose on the table, read aloud the name of one of the fourteen women, and lit a candle, followed by a moment of silence. I read my poem, far too hurriedly, and finally we watched a brief slide show.

The whole event has left me with a feeling of tension, activism, weakness and strength all at once. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go do some homework, and think about where I was twenty years ago today. Sure, I wasn't technically alive yet, or was I? I still feel deeply affected by it, and all other acts of violence against women, men, animals, people, nations, the environment... We really are a species that likes to hurt.

Today, just now, in fact, I googled myself, and for the first time ever, three sites came up that were actually about ME! Including this, by the way, which inspired my less-than-timely post. So, dear blogoverse, if you're ever in the neighborhood, check me out. Bahaha.

These past few days, weeks, months have been busy. I fail dreadfully at NaNoWriMo with a miserable 18k or so words. I've been obsessed with Margaret Atwood of late, and have read the Blind Assassin, Oryx and Crake, and am working on Lady Oracle. Thursday morning, I sent a letter to Margaret Atwood--the typical, you're amazing, I am not worthy! kind of thing--just because I'd like to know.

I've also recently discovered the amazing wonderful-ness of MLIA, or My Life Is Average, which has inspired me to dress up as Hermione Granger and wander around town, just for the sake of wandering. Deviant Art has been a major source of inspiration, as well, especially Auriethepixie, whose photography amazes the hell out of me.

Any fellow young writers in British Columbia, should check this out! Deadline for the contest is December 31st (either 5 poems, or a max. 5 page short story), and I'm currently scrambling to come up with something half-way-decent. Hope I get in--it looks absolutely phenomenal! Cross your fingers for me,